Davidson Food and Sustainability Blog

I saw a huge need at the farm today that is available to some extinct, but not usable for all farmers, especially small farmers. The Davidson College farm specifically relies on volunteers and donations in order to produce local, healthy food for campus. This can be a management nightmare after a never-ending issue of crop plan changes. Producers must accommodate …

First Day at the Farm Today I was able to gain some real life experience and a better understanding of what goes on behind the scenes at a small local farm. As a small farm practicing organic farming methods, it is difficult to keep up production high enough to match the conventional producers that are supplying food for the area. …

Word: Engage Yesterday I said I wasn’t a farmer. Today I was a farmer; or at the very least I tried to be a farmer. As you can see my hands took quite the beating from only 6 hours in the life of a farmer, not even a full working day. After talking with full time employees of the farm …

Word: Artisanal I am not a farmer. I am not a chef. The most direct work with food I’ve had was when I worked for a catering company at weddings in high school. And unlike most people, I have a touchy relationship with food because of my celiac diagnosis several years ago. But here I am this summer working towards …

When I first started learning about “good” food, I rarely thought about the complete food system: the land, plants, trees, or the people who harvested the food. I never thought about the people who live in food deserts and lack access to healthy and fresh foods. In reality, I never thought about the concept of food justice or understood that …

Many food justice activists who are concerned about the implicit social assumptions hidden behind languages have spoken against the term “food desert”. According to Renee, a local food champion in Davidson, the catchphrase “food desert” masks the harm that unjust structure imposes upon communities by detaching the phenomenon of food insecurity from the intentionally, and historically, designed unjust social structure, …

Leilani Munter, the world’s number one eco-athlete realizes that she may come across as an oxymoron. When she isn’t fighting for the welfare of the environment and sustainable practices, she’s burning rubber in her 200mph racecar. Some people don’t get it; how could someone who drives racecars possibly care about the environment? The answer is quite simple: she’s an environmental …

If you are what you eat, then most of Americans are not beef, nor chicken, but corn. A staple food originated and traditionally worshipped in Central America, corn has become one of the pillars that sustain modern material cornucopia. Humans directly consume only 2.7% of the 12.1 billion bushels of corn produced annually, while the rest are processed into other …

Name: Ethan Whitener Class: 2016 Hometown: Lawrence, NJ Major: History Why did you initially express interest in the farm? I worked on the grounds crew originally but I was interested in fresh food so I talked to Theresa and asked her if there was work to be done and she said yes. The rest is history. What do you love …